Robotic Materials

Hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic actuators with muscle-like performance

2018

Article

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Existing soft actuators have persistent challenges that restrain the potential of soft robotics, highlighting a need for soft transducers that are powerful, high-speed, efficient, and robust. We describe a class of soft actuators, termed hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic (HASEL) actuators, which harness a mechanism that couples electrostatic and hydraulic forces to achieve a variety of actuation modes. We introduce prototypical designs of HASEL actuators and demonstrate their robust, muscle-like performance as well as their ability to repeatedly self-heal after dielectric breakdown—all using widely available materials and common fabrication techniques. A soft gripper handling delicate objects and a self-sensing artificial muscle powering a robotic arm illustrate the wide potential of HASEL actuators for next-generation soft robotic devices.

Author(s): Eric Acome and Shane K Mitchell and TG Morrissey and MB Emmett and Claire Benjamin and Madeline King and Miles Radakovitz and Christoph Keplinger
Journal: Science
Volume: 359
Number (issue): 6371
Pages: 61-65
Year: 2018
Department(s): Robotic Materials
Bibtex Type: Article (article)
Paper Type: Journal
DOI: 10.1126/science.aao6139
Additional (custom) Fields:
acknowledgement: This work was supported by startup funds from the University of Colorado, Boulder. M.B.E, M.K., and M.R. received financial support from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder. E.A., S.K.M., M.B.E., and C.K. are listed as inventors on a provisional patent application (U.S. 62/474,814) submitted by the University of Colorado, Boulder, that covers fundamental principles and various designs of HASEL transducers.

BibTex 

@article{ACOME18-SCI-HASEL,
  title = {Hydraulically amplified self-healing electrostatic actuators with muscle-like performance},
  author = {Acome, Eric and Mitchell, Shane K and Morrissey, TG and Emmett, MB and Benjamin, Claire and King, Madeline and Radakovitz, Miles and Keplinger, Christoph},
  journal = {Science},
  volume = {359},
  number = {6371},
  pages = {61-65},
  year = {2018},
  doi = {10.1126/science.aao6139}
}